Barak S. Platt

Work Department

Position

Barak Platt is a partner in the firm's commercial department and specializes in Mergers and Acquisitions, High-tech and Venture Capital and Private Equity. His clients range from large multinational corporations to early-stage start-ups as well as venture capital funds and private equity funds. Barak has been recognized repeatedly by leading international legal guides as an expert in his practice areas and as a recommended lawyer.

For over 25 years practicing law both in Israel and the United States, Barak has served as lead counsel in numerous merger and acquisition transactions, addressing all aspects of those transactions, including intellectual property issues, tax aspects and regulatory matters.

In addition, over the years many of the leading players both in the Israeli and the global venture capital scene have turned to Barak to assist them in hundreds of investments in portfolio companies.

After graduating law school at the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), Barak served as a legal clerk to United States District Judge Earl B. Gilliam in the Southern District of California.

Barak has been a partner at Yigal Arnon & Co. since 2001.

Languages

Barak is fluent in English and Hebrew.

Member

Barak was admitted to the California Bar in 1987 and to the Israel Bar in 1993.

Education

Barak graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Magna Cum Laude in 1984 and received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1987.

Israel

Commercial, corporate and M&A

Within: Commercial, corporate and M&A

The corporate team at Yigal Arnon & Co is âpersonally invested in satisfying its clientsâ needsâ and was involved in some of Israelâs highest-profile M&A in 2016-2017. Barak Platt advised Intel Corporation on its $15.3bn acquisition of Mobileye, while Barry Levenfeld acted for Mexichem in its $1.5bn acquisition of a controlling stake in Netafim. Following its merger with Weinstock Zecler & Co., the firm welcomed Micki Shapira and Gidon Weinstock to the team.

Hi-tech, start-ups

Within: Hi-tech, start-ups

The lawyers at Yigal Arnon & Co are âpersonally invested in their clientsâ needsâ and âknow no off-hoursâ. Jointly led by Barry Levenfeld and Barak Platt and acting primarily for international tech companies, the department was involved in the largest Israeli tech M&A in 2017, and the largest Israeli tech M&A in 2016. Start-up clients include Rounds and GreenIQ.

Search News and Articles

While there are the aficionados who will say that cryptocurrencies will free us of the chains of the global financial institutions, on the occasions when the world of cryptocurrencies intersects with the world in which most of us live, the news is generally bleak. While you may not know one side of a Bitcoin from the other, you probably know that its value has crashed over the last 13 months, you may even have heard about some of some of the larger cryptohacks (that is computer heists through which digital currencies belonging to investors are stolen from crypto trading exchanges). And over the last week or so, you may have read on mainstream news sites about the death of Gerald Cotton the CEO of Canadaâs largest cryptoexchange QuadragaCX. The death of the CEO of a company that few had previously heard of, was news of course, because in his passing he had taken the passwords to the accounts of his customers with him. The result of this being that about $140 million of their money was stuck somewhere between this world and the celestial ether in which Mr. Cotton now resides. Of course, it wasnât quite told like that. We were fed terms such as âprivate keys,â lack of âmulti-signature protection,â âcold storage walletsâ and more readily understandable â âcryptofraudâ. Again!

While there are the aficionados who will say that cryptocurrencies will free us of the chains of the global financial institutions, on the occasions when the world of cryptocurrencies intersects with the world in which most of us live, the news is generally bleak. While you may not know one side of a Bitcoin from the other, you probably know that its value has crashed over the last 13 months, you may even have heard about some of some of the larger cryptohacks (that is computer heists through which digital currencies belonging to investors are stolen from crypto trading exchanges). And over the last week or so, you may have read on mainstream news sites about the death of Gerald Cotton the CEO of Canadaâs largest cryptoexchange QuadragaCX. The death of the CEO of a company that few had previously heard of, was news of course, because in his passing he had taken the passwords to the accounts of his customers with him. The result of this being that about $140 million of their money was stuck somewhere between this world and the celestial ether in which Mr. Cotton now resides. Of course, it wasnât quite told like that. We were fed terms such as âprivate keys,â lack of âmulti-signature protection,â âcold storage walletsâ and more readily understandable â âcryptofraudâ. Again!

Earlier this year, the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) issued two circulars, one on the taxation of
digital tokens and the second addressing the taxation of utility tokens in initial coin offerings
(ICOs). Additionally, in March, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) released a detailed
interim report by the Committee for the Regulation of Public Offerings of Decentralized
Cryptocurrency Coins (Report) (with a follow-up report due to come out around October
2018). Moreover, it is expected that before the end of 2018, legislation will come into force
that for the first time will see Israeli primary legislation define virtual currencies as financial
assets and mandate licensing for related services, as is later discussed in detail.

Israel may be the âStart-up Nationâ and a world-renowned center of technological innovation, yet for
many years the procedures and conduct of the Israeli Land Registry have been trapped in the past.

Nondiscrimination has been the neglected stepchild of the FRAND
commitment. Patent owners participating in standards organizations typically
commit to license their technology on âfair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory
(âFRANDâ) terms.â

Non-disclosure agreements are a crucial, but often overlooked, tool in allowing startup
companies to grow, build strategic partnerships and explore new business relationships
necessary to develop their product or bring it to market. These agreements are often short
(sometimes only a page or two) and lead many founders to forego legal advice to get past
this "formality" and begin working with the other party to the NDA. Yet, NDAs are
important agreements with potentially far-reaching implications for the protection of a
company's confidential information and intellectual property, and mishandling of NDAs
can come back to haunt a startup years later.